U.S.-Czech Research: Competing Visions of Development of Rural Areas

这项由密苏里大学哥伦比亚分校的J. Sanford Rikoon和Ceske Budejovice景观生态学研究所的Miloslav Lapka合作的美国-捷克研究项目的目标是加强对新农村发展项目进行比较分析所需的理论基础，特别是在标准经济和生活质量指标表现不佳的边缘地区。这将通过汇集美国和捷克资深和初级研究人员组成的团队来完成，他们在政治生态学、景观研究和空间分析方面具有互补的专业知识。美国-捷克团队将对美国和中欧农村地区进行一项研究，采用跨学科的方法，检查政治、经济、社会文化和生态变量。预期结果将以创新的方式将现象学和实证研究结合起来，以完善一个纳入地方和社区一级观点的决策框架，以便进行更有效和现实的地方和区域发展规划。成功将加强我们对备选方案的分析，并增进我们对当地个人和社区表达的相互竞争的愿景在资源开发决策中可能产生的有益影响的理解。这个跨学科的项目通过使美国和中欧的专家能够在共同感兴趣和能力强的领域结合互补的人才和共享研究资源，实现了推进科学知识的计划目标。更广泛的影响包括美国学生参与者的早期职业生涯接触到国外的合作研究，这可能导致未来与欧洲同行在可持续发展、旅游发展和农村经济战略等具有全球重要性的主题上建立伙伴关系。

The goal of this U.S.-Czech research project between J. Sanford Rikoon of the University of Missouri Columbia and Miloslav Lapka of the Institute of Landscape Ecology, in Ceske Budejovice, is to strengthen the theoretical foundation required for comparative analysis of new rural development programs, particularly in marginal regions characterized by low performance on standard economic and quality-of-life-indicators. This will be accomplished by bringing together a team of senior and junior U.S. and Czech researchers with complementary expertise in political ecology, landscape studies, and spatial analysis. The U.S. -Czech team will undertake a study of U.S. and Central European rural areas, with an interdisciplinary approach that examines political, economic, socio-cultural and ecological variables. Results are expected to blend phenomenological and empirical research in innovative ways to refine a decision framework that incorporates local and community level perspectives for more effective and realistic local and regional development planning. Success would enhance our analysis of alternative schemes and improve our understanding of the beneficial influence that competing visions expressed by local individuals and communities can have in resource development decisions. This interdisciplinary project fulfills the program objective of advancing scientific knowledge by enabling experts in the United States and Central Europe to combine complementary talents and share research resources in areas of strong mutual interest and competence. Broader impacts include the early career exposure of U.S. student participants to cooperative research abroad that may lead to future partnering with European counterparts on topics of global importance such as sustainability, tourism development, and rural economic strategies.